Detroit Pistons rookie Andre Drummond shows off his jersey at the Palace of Auburn Hills on June 29, 2012. / WILLIAM ARCHIE / DFP

By Patrick Hayes

Detroit Free Press Special Writer

Patrick Hayes writes for Pistons blog PistonPowered. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press nor its writers. PistonPowered writers will contribute a column every Friday at freep.com/pistons. Contact Patrick anytime at patrickhayes13@gmail.com or on Twitter @patrick_hayes.

In the New York Times this week, NBA writer Jim Cavan compared Andre Drummond to Darko Milicic.

Now, Pistons fans would certainly cringe at that comparison, but Cavan was actually being complimentary. If you remember, legendary scout Will Robinson once compared a young Milicic to Wilt Chamberlain. Cavanís point was simply that no Pistons draft pick has had such a wide gulf between his extremely high ceiling and the many unknowns that could potentially limit as ability to reach that potential as Drummond.

What we do know about Drummond is that he has immense physical gifts, that he seems willing to learn and be coached, that heís extremely young and that his one semi-refined skill at this young stage in his development ó shot-blocking ó just happens to be the skill the Pistons are in dire need of.

When the Pistons drafted Milicic, they were in the unique position of not needing anything out of him. They brought him along at a snailís pace. Looking back, itís hard to say whether Milicic wouldíve turned out differently had he not spent two plus years languishing on a bench as the butt of all the Ďhuman victory cigarí jokes. Whether or not he was destined to be a bust anywhere he ended up, I think most would agree that sitting as much as he did in Detroit didnít do wonders for his confidence or motivation. No matter how hard Milicic did or did not work, chances were he wasnít going to get minutes on those teams because of the talent in front of him and the fact that his coaches ó Larry Brown and Flip Saunders ó were both more comfortable playing veterans throughout their coaching career. Itís hard to sell a young, impressionable player on the concept that hard work leads to minutes when, at that time in Detroit, it probably wasnít the case.

With Drummond, the Pistons have a chance to do things differently. First and foremost, unlike with Milicic, it is of vital importance to Detroitís presence and future that Drummond turns out to be a good player. Realistic or not, the team has playoff aspirations this season. Itís hard to see them achieving that objective if Drummond is a year or two away from being a reliable rotation player or better.

The Pistons, obviously, also have far less competition in the frontcourt these days, so the path to playing time should be much easier. I wonít even pencil Greg Monroe into one of the two frontcourt starting spots. Iíll tattoo him in there. If Monroe isnít starting every game and playing 35 minutes or more per game, the Pistons have no shot at the playoffs.

The other spot, however, presents a great opportunity for Drummond to capture not only a role, but maybe even a starting spot depending on how ready he is for training camp and the preseason. These are his impediments:

• Jason Maxiell, a solid rotation player probably better suited to being a third big man at this point in his career.

• Charlie Villanueva, a player coming off of an injury-plagued season who seems to have great intentions but might not ever prove to be a good fit for the defense-first philosophy of coach Lawrence Frank.

• Slava Kravstov, a player who might be just as raw as Drummond with less upside.

• Ben Wallace, an aging veteran who technically isnít even on the roster at this point.

• Jonas Jerebko, Kyle Singler and Austin Daye ó three hybrid forwards who have or will all see time at the four this season, but who all might be better suited to being small forwards.

Thatís not quite as daunting a task as trying to supplant players like an in-his-prime Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Corliss Williamson, Antonio McDyess and Mehmet Okur in the rotation as Milicic was attempting to do in the early years of his career.

In a fantastic understatement, this version of the Pistons has far less talent than the team Milicic joined, so that should lead to a better opportunity for Drummond to develop and gain confidence early in his career than Milicic had. But the teamís philosophy isnít much different as far as playing young players from those days. Last year was a perfect example ó veteran small forwards Tayshaun Prince and Damien Wilkins played a large portion of the small forward minutes while young former first round pick Austin Daye became an afterthought.

The Pistons certainly have more riding on Drummondís development than they do on Dayeís, so I doubt there is a uniform philosophy that applies to all young players and situations.

The Pistons have veteran players like Maxiell, Jerebko and Wallace if he returns capable of playing competent frontcourt minutes for any NBA team. But none of those players, either individually or as a combination, taking the bulk of minutes next to Monroe would be enough to make the Pistons a playoff team next season. Their best hope to accomplish that goal lies in whether Drummond is ready to be a game-changing presence, at least on defense, very early in his career.

If he proves heís ready, the team will surprise many people this season. If heís not quite ready, they still have those veteran safeguards who can step in. But unlike with Milicic, the Pistons cannot afford to let Drummond sit long, ready or not.